Do your kids’ messy bedrooms drive you crazy? The struggle is real in my house. But just like in any other part of the house, utilizing organization tools and strategies can help keep the mess at bay and the kids’ rooms more organized!
Here are some tips to help keep your kids’ rooms more organized.
Obviously, the contents of a kid’s bedroom evolves as they age. The amount of help you might need to offer your child evolves as well. My kids are both still in elementary school. While they both are tasked with doing some basic daily and weekly “picking-up”, I help them with more thorough organizing and decluttering.
Tip 1: Get rid of the clutter!
This might be the hardest step for your child because somehow kids seem to get attached to everything! They will beg you to keep the Valentine card from two years ago that you find under their bed. Or the 52 paper airplanes shoved in the back of their closet. But the chances are very high they will not miss these items one bit!
The first step to getting kids’ rooms more organized is to go through their room and throw out stuff they don’t really need. This includes thoroughly cleaning under the bed and the closet. Just getting rid of this extra junk will help the space feel cleaner.
Tip 2: Sort through clothing.
I have two boys. As my oldest outgrows things, I place them into a plastic tub that is kept in my youngest’s closet. As my youngest outgrows things, I either donate them or sell them to consignment shops.
I go through all their clothes at least twice a year (usually in the fall and spring) and figure out what they have outgrown. I also ask them what they don’t want to wear anymore. My kids are responsible for putting their own clothes away. If their dresser drawers are packed to the brim, it’s harder for clothes to be neatly put away. Even if they aren’t that neatly put away, they should still be able to easily push the dresser draw shut.
Tip 3: Sort through books.
I have basically used the same system with books that I do with clothing. As my oldest outgrows certain books, they are passed on to his little brother. But just like everything else, kids’ taste in books evolve, and some books just start collecting dust.
As my kids have grown older, I have saved some of my favorites. But I have also donated many that are no longer being read. There are many great organizations that will gladly accept used books in good condition to pass them on to kids in need.
To keep their books organized, I bought each kiddo a small shelving unit (the kind that you can also put canvas totes in). When they were babies, I stored extra blankets and baby toys in the canvas totes and books on the shelves. Now they keep smaller toys, cards, etc. inside the canvas totes and still use the shelves for books.
Tip 4: Consider investing in a shelving unit for displaying toys and other knick-knacks.
Both of my boys are obsessed with Legos. But usually once they make the kit, they don’t want to take them apart. They want to display them, instead, which meant they were rapidly cluttering up the tops of their dressers and floor.
We found each a very reasonably priced tall shelf off of craigslist and they had a great time organizing their collections onto the shelves. Just that simple step of cleaning off the top of their dressers made the whole room seem cleaner and more organized.
Side note: They also each have a stuffed animal net hung in the corner where they can stick their stuffed animals. This helps keep them from ending up all over the bed or floor. (Stuffed animals are another good thing to sort through and purge every now and again).
Step 5: Invest in some closet organizers.
Closets that don’t have built in shelves can be tricky to keep organized because there is a lot of vertical space that doesn’t get utilized. One way to help maximize storage space in closets is using shelves or stackable tubs. Here are some ideas:
- Install extra shelving. It’s not as hard as it sounds, trust me! Big home improvements stores like Home Depot and Lowes offer metal closet shelving that they will cut to size for you in the store. If you don’t want to install permanent shelving, you can just place a pre-built shelf or bookcase inside the closet to stack things on, like extra bedding, clothes, and shoes.
- Use stackable plastic drawers. You can find these in most big box stores, but they come in different sizes that stack together. I have some of these stacked on top of one another in my son’s closets and we put extra sheets, his swimsuits, and some toiletry items (like lotion, Vaseline, etc.) in them. These are also great for storing shoes (when your kiddos are littler).
- Plastic tubs. As I mentioned earlier, I use a large plastic tub to store out-of-season clothing or clothes that aren’t yet quite the right size. I also use smaller plastic tubs to store Legos, blocks, tinker toys, and other toy sets that have lots of little pieces. These can then easily stack inside the closet and can be pulled out as desired. Having these toys stored in their rooms also helps keep our downstairs living space cleaner.
Tip 6: Make room cleaning a routine part of your day or week.
You can build a quick 5 or 10-minute daily room clean-up into your kids’ normal routine. Maybe right before they brush their teeth at night. Or right after their afternoon snack.
If that doesn’t work, designate 30 minutes each weekend to cleaning, but make it a routine part of your family schedule. It is much easier to stay on top of it daily or weekly. If you let too much time pass, then the job can feel overwhelming for kids and the process will be that much more painful for both of you!
Hope these tips will help you tackle the bedroom mess and kids’ rooms more organized!